Burundi want to qualify for the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations in order to prove that their presence last time was “not a fluke”, their captain Saido Berahino has said.
The 2019 edition of the tournament was the first time the small central African nation had ever qualified.
Burundi are currently third in Group E for qualifying for Cameroon, but only a point behind Mauritania. They face CAR and then group leaders Morocco – who are almost certainly already assured of qualification – in the final two fixtures.
“We’ve worked so hard to get to the position that we are now – after qualifying already for the first time in history,” Berahino told BBC Sport Africa.
“We want to show the people it was not just a fluke.”
Alongside Madagascar and Mauritania, Burundi were one of three debutants in Egypt two years ago.
But while Madagascar thrived – topping their group and eventually going through to the quarter-finals – Burundi finished bottom of the group having lost all three games.
Berahino – who played for England at Under-20 level before switching to the country of his birth – said that having a “taste of the tournament” in 2019 was inspiring their efforts to try and make it to Cameroon.
“We want to qualify again – because we’ve got the hunger, we’ve got the desire,” he said.
“And we’ve had the taste of the tournament, so it will be wonderful to actually go there – saying that we qualified two times in a row – and try to make a tournament better than the last one.
“We’ve got every chance,”
